Harking back to Labor glory days

The trials and tribulations of the Labor Party are sure to be examined when speechwriter and author Graham Freudenberg and former Wran government minister Rodney Cavalier appear at a function in Sydney tonight.

The pair will be appearing at Gleebooks in Sydney’s Glebe in a talk presented by the Whitlam Institute at the University of Western Sydney.

Freudenberg’s best-known role was as former prime minister
Gough Whitlam
’s speechwriter, though he worked for many other Labor leaders at both the state and federal level since the 1960s. It will be announced at the function that Freudenberg has donated several items to the institute’s Whitlam Prime Ministerial Collection, including an original advertising proposal for the 1972 “It’s Time" campaign, thought to be the only publicly-available copy in Australia. He is also donating a 1974 letter from Whitlam to the then NSW premier Robert Askin seeking consent to build a federally-funded railway line from Parramatta to various other suburbs, of interest considering the transport challenges Sydney faces.